Sibbick on Struber relationship and Belgian exile

Interesting what Toby Sibbick mentions in last night's matchday programme

https://the72.co.uk/222803/he-didnt...ck-on-struber-relationship-and-belgian-exile/

Barnsley defender Toby Sibbick has said that former head coach Gerhard Struber “didn’t want to talk” to him and had “poor” man-management skills.

Sibbick has had a rollercoaster year-and-a-half since signing for the Reds from AFC Wimbledon in the summer of 2019.

He was a favourite under Daniel Stendel but successor Struber cast him aside from the first team, and he had loan spells at Heart of Midlothian and Oostende last year.

Now the 21-year-old is back in the fold under new boss Valerien Ismael, starting five of their past six matches on the right side of their three-man defence.

It is a happier period for Sibbick than this time last year, when he had re-joined former boss Stendel in Scotland with Hearts having been exiled from the Reds first team when Struber took charge.

He has been a regular under Stendel but when the German was sacked in October following a poor start to the Championship season, his replacement was less welcoming.

“I tried to speak to him a few times but he wasn’t really engaging in conversations – it’s like he didn’t want to talk to me,” Sibbick told Barnsley’s matchday programme of Struber.

“It was difficult to get anything out of him but, at the end of the day, I had to do what’s best for me and I think I did that.

“When he came in, he didn’t say too much to me. We never really had that conversation and, when I did try to talk to him, he wasn’t really engaging in anything so it was difficult to talk to him.

“I think, in a sense of his man-management sometimes – even with other players – it was quite poor, but that’s football and it’s down to you how you get on with things.”

Sibbick did that by reuniting with Stendel – who “put his trust, belief and faith in me” – at Hearts, but glandular fever and then the coronavirus outbreak limited his involvement north of the border.

He returned to Barnsley after lockdown, unable to feature in the season’s conclusion and outside the first team anyway under Struber, and for this season he was sent out to Belgian side Oostende, who are part of the umbrella group of Barnsley’s owners.

But further frustration was in store for Sibbick, who didn’t make a single appearance in his time on the continent.

“I went to Belgium on loan and thought it would be good for me but I didn’t really get a look in,” he said. “I had no pre-season and the season started the day after I joined, so I couldn’t really get going out there and didn’t really get a chance, which is frustrating.

“I wasn’t enjoying it because I couldn’t see my family and friends with the coronavirus, so I was just in a foreign country on my own and it was difficult for me.”

Even more frustrating was that Oostende “wouldn’t let me come back” when New York-bound Struber was replaced at Oakwell by Ismael in October, and Sibbick had to wait in limbo until January before returning to South Yorkshire, where things are looking up again at last.

 

Not sure how I feel about articles from the matchday programme being shared online. The journalist here almost tries to pass it off as his own, and if they all get shared online then why pay for some of the amazing content that the club create exclusively?

 

Yeah was wondering if the site was somehow related to the programme creation or something but it doesn't appear to be.

 

I just wonder how legal this is as well. Taking free content is one thing, but this is essentially a subscription service so would be not different to filming something from Netflix and streaming it on your YouTube channel.